


The Tale of Echinacea

by appending_fic



Series: The Age of Mysteries (Ciphers) [3]
Category: Gravity Falls, Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Determination, Fairy Tale Style, Folklore, Gen, Kidnapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-20 23:08:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6028849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/appending_fic/pseuds/appending_fic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aster's parents named him for a figure of myth and legend, Echinacea who once met the Prince of Dreams. This is her story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tale of Echinacea

Echinacea was a creature of great beauty. Her eyes were black as the starless night, her fur a dusky brown. She knew grace and balance from her youth, and so it was known that Pooka would seek her favor simply at the mention of her.

And indeed, when she was full grown, many sought her good graces, but the most charming of all of them was the Prince of Dreams, who wore a coat of many colors, and whose eyes gleamed like sapphires.

But when Echinacea chose the Prince of Dreams, he laughed and embraced her, carrying her aloft to a cave set deep within the largest mountain she had ever seen.

He set her down in a room resplendent in gold and silver and all manner of jewels, and said, “Now that you are mine, I will not countenance anyone else looking upon your face. I will bring you all you might desire, and you shall lay with me and bear my kits.”

Echinacea would not consent to this, and this sent the Prince of Dreams into a fury. “Then you shall have uncooked grain instead of the finest cakes, brackish water instead of the finest wines, and you shall never see the sun again!” And he shut her inside the cave with a heavy stone, and left her in the darkness.

Each day he would bring her food and water and ask if she would change her mind, and each day Echinacea would say no. The Prince of Dreams would rage again, and leave her in the darkness.

The stone beneath the gold and silver was too hard to dig through, and the stone set before the cave too heavy for Echinacea to move.

So Echinacea spent the first day picking up a small ring, moving it to the far side of the cave, and putting it down. The next day, she did the same with a larger necklace, and the next, a heavy crown.

And so the weeks and months passed. Each day, Echinacea would move the objects in her prison, and each night, she would refuse the Prince of Dreams.

And then one night, the Prince of Dreams arrived to find the cave empty, the stone rolled aside by a Pooka who had spent months carrying the fortune in gold and jewels scattered across the cavern, building the strength to move the stone aside.

And the Prince of Dreams did not pursue her, because he now knew Echinacea had the hope and determination to carry on long enough that she could accomplish anything.


End file.
